Don Kardong

Don Kardong's multi-faceted career in the running community is unparalleled. He has been a collegiate athlete, Olympic marathoner, race founder, race director, writer, commentator, and a former president of the RRCA

Don Kardong's multi-faceted career in the running community is unparalleled. He has been a collegiate athlete, Olympic marathoner, race founder, race director, writer, commentator, and a former president of the RRCA. Don Kardong is Stanford University's recordholder for two, three and six miles.

He ran his first marathon in 1972 in 2:18:06. In 1976, Kardong finished third in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trails. He then went on to finish fourth in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, in a personal best of 2:11:16. Kardong won the Peachtree Road Race (1976), the Honolulu Marathon (1978), and the LeGrizz 50 Mile Ultra Marathon (1987). He is a founding member and past president of the Association of Road Racing Athletes. His published books on running include "Bloomsday a City in Motion," "Thirty Phone Booths to Boston: Tales of a Wayward Runner" and "Hills, Hawgs & Ho Chi Minh: More Tales of a Wayward Runner." Kardong has been a Senior Writer for Runner's World Magazine since 1987. He is the founder of the Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane, Washington, which annually has over 50,000 entrants. We caught up with Kardong to discuss his career and his upcoming induction into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in July.

Runner's World Daily: You have been involved in several aspects of this sport as a college athlete, open athlete, Olympian, author, correspondent, race director, RRCA president. Had you always intended to widen the breadth of your involvement or did it happen naturally?Don Kardong: You could say naturally, but accidentally would probably be more like it. At each step of the way--beginning with running in high school--I've evaluated where I stood, what opportunities were available to me (athletically and otherwise), and what path might be interesting and rewarding to follow. It's been more of an intuitive or reactive journey than a planned one, with lots of trips down the road less traveled. I have a hard time speaking to high school students about pursuing a career path because I haven't really done any of the things they're advised to do--set a goal, figure out how to get there, and start working on it. My own life has been more of a "gee that sounds interesting, I think I'll try that." Obviously I was warped by growing up in the '60s. In any event, the breadth of my involvement in running has basically been a reflection of that kind of mindset. The opportunities just seemed to open up in all directions from my interest in running.

RWD: Looking at your career, one can see that you are a trendsetter. Your coverage of Boston Marathon, "Thirty Phone Booths," preceded cell phone coverage. Your trail and ultra running preceded the current popularity of ultras and trail races. Your travel to marathons throughout the U.S. and overseas preceded the 50 State marathoners. Explain your process of choosing projects. Do they come about as "gee, wouldn't this be fun?" or are they planned purposefully?DK: Most of my running experiences have been related to stories I've written, and most of the time those have been assignments I've been given, or at least that I've been asked if I'm interested in. So a lot of the time I'm just pursuing experiences that editors and I have considered to be interesting. Running rim-to-rim and back in the Grand Canyon was that kind of story. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, but it wasn't something I woke up one day wanting to do. It was another "gee, that sounds interesting" kind of thing. Other story ideas have been pitched to me by runners, race directors, and so on, and with those it's a two-step process. One, is this something that sounds interesting? And two, can I convince my editors of that? A trail runner named Mike McQuaide invited me to run around Mount St. Helens with him, and that definitely sounded interesting. Again, it was a fabulous experience, but not one I dreamed up on my own.

In any case, no matter how good I think an idea is, if it doesn't fit a magazine's editorial plan, it ain't gonna fly. Of course, you might wonder if covering the 1981 Boston Marathon by calling phone booths along the course was really in "Running" magazine's editorial plan. But I'm not sure they had one.

I do have some stories that have come to me without editorial prodding or from another runner's suggestion, but mostly I'm following my instincts in terms of what might be interesting to do and write about.

RWD: You've written books about your running experiences. What are the most unusual events that you recall?DK: I've already mentioned a couple of them. Eleven hours to go across the Grand Canyon and back was something I'll never forget. Very difficult, but endlessly fascinating territory. Same with the run around Mount St. Helens. When the mountain erupted in 1980, the ash fall in Spokane really threw a wrench in my running, and going back to circle the mountain on foot a couple of decades later seemed like payback of sorts to one mean-spirited landform. When you run somewhere, you absorb the place viscerally, and both those experiences were like that. When the volcano erupted again last fall and the pictures were on TV, I could remember every step of the journey around it.

But really, I've been fortunate to have run in so many places, and to experience them in the special way runners do. When I see the Empire State Building, I remember running up it. When television shows photos of almost any major city, I can relate to the images because of having explored the town on foot. I've stopped blurting out "I've run there!" at times like that because my daughters typically respond with a droll "We know, Dad, you've run everywhere."

RWD: Describe your involvement with the Lilac Bloomsday race.DK: You mentioned trendsetter before, but I've never thought of myself as a trendsetter as much as a trend noticer. Before the 1976 Olympics, I was invited to Atlanta to run the Peachtree Road Race. I'd never seen anything like it. There were 2,000 runners that year, about ten times as many runners as I'd ever seen in a race, and the stampede of runners into downtown Atlanta really captured my imagination. When I got back to Spokane later that year, I told a newspaper reporter than I thought we should have something like that in Spokane. That made the papers, and our mayor cornered me shortly afterward in an elevator and said he thought it was a great idea. He had grown up in Boston and remembered watching the marathon, and he got a little misty-eyed as in his reverie. That started the ball rolling. Some very good organizers came to me offering to help, and in the spring of 1977 we had over a thousand runners in the first running of the event. For the next ten years we grew by approximately 5,000 runners per year, eventually topping 50,000. It was stunning.

Over the years, I've stayed involved with Bloomsday as a member of the Board of Directors and as the Elite Athlete Coordinator. Last August, I took my first paid position as Race Director. Some of the things we've added over the years have, again, been trends I've noticed developing or things Ive seen other races doing. We were one of the first races to offer prize money, which was a logical outcome of my involvement with the Association of Road Racing Athletes, the athletes' organization that helped change the rules so runners could earn a living at their sport. In any case, it's been fun helping Bloomsday adjust, adapt and evolve over the years.

RWD: Who were your role models?DK: In terms of running, Billy Mills would be at the top of the list. It took me a long time to figure this out, but the image of him winning the Tokyo Olympics was imbedded in my subconscious during my first year of competitive running. That's how winning a race is supposed to look. Running prowess aside, over the years I've also been impressed with how he's conducted himself--how he's overcome adversity, the way he's given back to the sport and to his community, his view of his place in the world.

The coaches I've had, have also been role models. Marshall Clark at Stanford was just a wonderful human being, as well as a great coach. Being a coach in the '60s, when every authority figure was suspect, was no easy task, but he managed it with grace and integrity. And Tracy Walters, who was Gerry Lindgren's high school coach and who coached me before the 1976 Olympics, has been an inspiration ever since I met him back in 1969. My role models have tended to be people whose influence may begin in the world of running but whose impact on people's lives is much larger than that.

RWD: How would you have trained differently if you were a sponsored athlete in your best racing years?DK: I had a year after I graduated from Stanford when I trained like a sponsored runner, and I made dramatic improvements during that year. I wasn't sponsored, but I knew how to live very, very cheaply, so it was sort of like being sponsored by Mr. Miser. The problem was, you can't live like that for very long, or at least I couldn't. I needed to get on with finding an actual job. I think if I had been sponsored, I would have been able to extend my career for a few more years. Having sufficient sponsorship to pay the bills would probably have allowed me to stay focused on running. As it was, I just got too involved in other stuff to keep training at a high level. Then again, I don't do very well with running as the only focus, so maybe being sponsored wouldn't have made a difference.

RWD: In Montreal in 1976, you placed fourth in the Olympic Marathon. It is widely suspected that the gold medalist, Waldemar Cierpinski, was a drug cheat. Do you believe you will ever be awarded the bronze medal from the 1976 Games?DK: No, I don't think the IOC will ever correct that situation. An entire country (East Germany) cheated systematically for years, but most people just shrug and say, "well, that was a long time ago."

RWD: You've experienced a few injuries as of late. How is your health?DK: I ran for 40 years without more than a week's layoff, but a year ago I developed meniscus tears in each knee, and I had surgery last fall. Recovery has taken a lot longer than expected, but I seem to be making steady progress. I'm running four days a week now, with my longest run six miles. Liposuction is next.

RWD: What does your induction into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame mean to your legacy?DK: Being inducted into the Hall is a tremendous honor. So many of the runners I've admired over the years have been inducted in past years that it's really humbling to be included in that group. But I don't really think of it in terms of a legacy. I'm just interested in what's around the next bend in the trail.

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